The BurmaNet News: May 21, 1999

------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: May 21, 1999
Issue #1276
HEADLINES:
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SHRF: KILLING OF 6 VILLAGERS IN MURNG-TON
JDW: MYANMAR TO SET UP MILITARY SATELLITE NETWORK
REUTERS: MYANMAR SAYS TRAITORS UNDERMINING TOURISM
REUTERS: THAI POLICE ROUND UP 7,000 ILLEGAL WORKERS
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SHAN HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION: KILLING OF 6 VILLAGERS IN MURNG-TON
April 1999
In January 1999, a patrol of 15 SPDC troops from IB225 led by Maj Khyit Hla
beat to death 6 villagers near a farm between Loi Oon and Naa Mark Tee
villages, Murng-Ton township. The villagers were sitting and talking in Loi
Oon village when the troops entered and asked them if they had seen any
Shan resistance forces pass through the village. When the villagers said
they had not seen any Shan soldiers, the SPDC troops accused them of being
informers who were collecting intelligence for the Shan resistance and took
them away to a farm west of the village for further interrogation. After a
while, when the relatives of the 6 villagers heard about it from other
villagers who had seen them being taken away by SPDC troops, they went
after them to find out what had become of them. They found that the 6
villagers had been killed and their bodies had been buried so shallow that
some of their hands and legs were sticking out of the ground.
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JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY: MYANMAR TO SET UP MILITARY SATELLITE NETWORK
19 May, 1999 by Robert Karniol JDW Asia Pacific Editor
Myanmar (formerly Burma) intends to establish an extensive military
satellite communications network as part of the effort to modernise its
armed forces, sources recently in Yangon (Rangoon) have revealed to Jane's
Defence Weekly.
The Ministry of Defence's Directorate of Procurement has invited potential
suppliers to tender for the programme's initial phase, involving the
construction of ground stations for a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT)
system.
These would be linked to a transponder capacity still to be leased on a
commercial satellite.
The first stage involves construction of a hub station in Yangon, 10 to 15
remote stations and three to five mobile stations. This should eventually
be expanded to some 200 remote stations that would provide secure voice and
data links to military units throughout the country.
The VSAT system would operate on C-Band and may include a video
conferencing capability. An encryption system is another requirement.
Myanmar already has a limited satellite communications capability, although
this is ostensibly civilian-oriented as it is mainly geared to provide
long-distance telephone services in the strategic border areas. A hub
station was established at Thanlyn (formerly Syriam), near Yangon, in 1993
and 14 satellite communication terminals set up in remote regions.
This system uses the ASIASAT satellite, owned by Hong Kong-based Asia
Satellite Telecommunications Co, with Myanmar leasing one-quarter of a
transponder for the purpose. ASIASAT is among two or three commercial
satellites that could be used for the planned military communications network.
Although ASIASAT is owned and operated by a Chinese company, the satellite
is of US origin. It is unclear how the use of US technology for a military
communications network would be affected by Washington's sanctions against
the Yangon regime, which include a ban on arms sales.
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REUTERS: MYANMAR SAYS TRAITORS UNDERMINING TOURISM
20 May, 1999
YANGON, May 20 (Reuters) - Myanmar said on Thursday fewer than half a
million tourists visited the country over the last year and it accused
"traitors'' of keeping tourists away.
The official Myanmar News Agency quoted Minister for Tourism Saw Lwin as
saying 477,362 tourists visited Myanmar during its April-March 1998/99
financial year, bringing in $63.63 million and 875.42 million kyat ($2.50
million).
He said just over 200,000 visitors arrived by air through Yangon airport
and the rest through the border.
The news agency quoted the powerful Secretary One of the ruling State Peace
and Development Council, Khin Nyunt, as saying "deserving progress'' had
not been achieved in tourism.
"National traitor destructive elements are spreading fabricated news on
Myanmar in collaboration with some foreign broadcasting stations and so
tourism has not developed as it should be due to their plot to belittle the
dignity of the state,'' the agency reported him as saying.
Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel Peace
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and international pressure groups have called
for a boycott of Myanmar in order to press for democracy.
The ruling generals say the country is not yet ready for democracy.
Khin Nyunt said some foreign investment projects had stagnated due to the
economic crisis in Southeast Asia.
Some $1.1 billion had been invested in 29 hotel projects for 6,668 hotel
rooms by the end of April 1999 and 17 projects with 3,593 hotel rooms had
been completed at a cost of $482.4 million.
He said it was necessary to provide help to 12 unfinished hotel projects
until they were finished but did not elaborate.
($1 - approx 350 kyat at free market street rate)
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REUTERS: THAI POLICE ROUND UP 7,000 ILLEGAL MYANMAR WORKERS
21 May, 1999
MAESOT, Thailand, May 21 (Reuters) - Thai police and army units raided
textile factories in this western border town early on Friday and rounded
up more than 7,000 illegal workers from Myanmar for deportation, officials
said.
Most than 200 police and army personnel took part in the raids on six
factories that started before dawn. Most of those rounded up were women,
police said.
"The problem of illegal workers is serious in Mae Sot, we have to take
action and send them back," Mae Sot police chief, Major General Chanwut
Wajarapuk, told reporters.
The Thai town is about 430 km (268 miles) north of Bangkok and separated
from Myanmar by a narrow stretch of the Moei River.
Chanwut estimated more than 100,000 people from Myanmar, most of them
women, worked illegally in the 43 textile factories and food canneries in
Mae Sot as well as agricultural labourers in the area.
Thailand's Labour and Social Welfare Ministry estimates that about one
million illegal workers from Asian countries, eighty percent of them from
Myanmar, are working Thailand.
Chanwut said the Thai government had set an August deadline for the
expulsion of the workers.
"The crackdown is beginning now and after August we will take tougher
action against them," he said.
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